Bombay High Court issues notice to government on PIL alleging scam at cattle camps

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has issued notices to Maharashtra government, Collector of Solapur and the police on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) about alleged irregularities at cattle camps in drought-prone Sangola tehsil of the district and elsewhere.

The notices were issued by the division Bench headed by Justice SJ Vajifdar.

Petitioners Gorakh Ghadge and Vithal Pawar, both farmers, allege that of the 93 cattle camps set up in Sangola tehsil during last year's drought - where farmers put up their livestock temporarily - 72 were deficient, as per an official inspection report.

Camp owners did not keep accounts, did not provide fodder to animals in some cases, did not install video cameras in the camp, provided inflated figures of cattle to pocket government subsidy and in some cases even starved the animals of water, the petition says.

It demands civil and criminal action against the guilty cattle camp owners.

Most cattle camp owners were workers of Congress, NCP and Shetkari Kamgar Paksha, the PIL says, alleging that no action was taken because of political pressure.